20^th Century Spanish
 
A self-taught artist, Tovar received various grants and scholarships in the 1970s and 1980s that allowed him to further his art training: the 1977 Juana de Aizpuru grant to study at Casa Velázquez, another one from the Spanish Ministry of Culture in 1979, one from Fundación Juan March in 1980, and a scholarship from the United States Information Agency, Fund for Artist Colonies and Ragdale Foundation in Chicago.
In the transition from the 1970s to the 1980s, the artist found himself following an abstract and lyrical language akin to that of Delgado and Salinas, although more austere. With this shift, Tovar’s practice began to include some simple, apparently architectural forms, leading to his present-day style with its strong yet not overly explicit symbolic content, expressed in forms derived from previous works.
In the 1980s he began to work with Galería Fúcares, which continues to represent him to date. Little by little, objects regained significance in his work, sustaining a painting with a strong narrative drive and with frequent symbolic allusions.
In the 1990s, Tovar entered into a deconstructive phase, using colour as the main tool for the creation of highly dynamic surfaces.